


Last Daughter of Cryptid

by drfitzmonster



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, a brooding edgelord and a ray of sunshine covered in fur fall in love, all the little forest creatures love her, bigfoot au, bigfoot!Kara, bigfoot!kara is basically a disney princess, kara loves humans and is just giant, lena hates humans and is a giant pothead, stoner!Lena, your standard 'trapped in a cabin' trope just with more fur
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2019-10-25 21:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17732693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drfitzmonster/pseuds/drfitzmonster
Summary: Lena is living in self-imposed exile in a remote cabin, completely content with the life of solitude she has chosen for herself, until a friendly, human-loving bigfoot crashes into her life and ruins everything.orthe Bigfoot AU that may or may not be an abomination but that's on theme so it's fine





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for blood, description of a wound, and first aid for a laceration

Lena had grown accustomed to being alone after five years of solitude living in a remote cabin in the forest in Washington state. She interacted with other people once or twice a month when she drove to the nearest town to get food or supplies or check out a book from the library.

It was worlds away from her old life, and she preferred it that way. She had no tv, no internet, no phone. She was completely disconnected. The world turned its back on her, demonizing her for having the misfortune of being adopted by a family of criminals, so she turned her back on the world.

She didn’t need them, she didn’t need anyone. She was perfectly content with her cats and her books and her grow house/workshop (a two-room corrugated steel shed) which had only caught fire a couple of times. It was a far cry from the R&D labs at L-Corp but it kept her occupied.

She’d carved out a life for herself, by herself, and had attained some semblance of happiness. Her self-imposed exile suited her. The ascetic isolation was penance for the sins of her family, and she’d long ago resigned herself to that fate.

She was comfortable. Her life as it was made sense. Until one fateful night when every single thing changed.

It started with a crashing noise out by the shed, and then the alarm going off. Lena immediately checked her security cameras, which revealed nothing useful, so she grabbed her shotgun and a flashlight and went out to investigate. It was most likely a raccoon or a possum, but ever since she caught a couple of teenagers trying to steal plants out of her grow house she could never be too careful.

When she reached her shed and saw the hulking, fur-covered figure she was glad she hadn’t opted for a broom instead of a gun. It was a bear. A bloody  _ bear _ had broken into her shed and she was not at all confident a shotgun slug would be enough to subdue it.

Fuck fuck fuck. She pumped the shotgun and aimed at the center of the bear, hoping to hit it somewhere in the chest. She was shaking. She’d never actually been this close to a bear, or tried to kill one. The first shot went wide, puncturing the side of the shed. 

She was about to fire again, when the bear turned towards her, calling out in a deep, rumbling voice, “Don’t shoot! I mean you no harm.” 

“What the fuck?!” Lena yelled, accidentally discharging the gun straight up in the air. She stumbled backwards, dropping both the gun and her flashlight as she fell. 

She hit her head on the concrete floor and the last thing she remembered before blacking out was a warm hand over hers and a voice calling, “Are you ok?”

When she came to she was in her cabin, lying on her couch with a blanket draped over her. She sat up with a gasp and looked around frantically. Everything looked normal until her eyes fell upon a figure in the corner. 

Something was in her cabin. The bear— the creature— whatever it was, was  _ inside _ her cabin.

Lena screamed and scrambled over the arm of the couch, trying to put something between herself and the creature. “What  _ are _ you?! What are you doing in my cabin?!” Lena yelled from behind the couch.

“You fell and got knocked unconscious while you were trying to shoot me. I brought you inside, but I couldn’t just leave you. I wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Lena poked her head out from behind the arm of the couch so she could look at the strange creature claiming it was some sort of good samaritan. Her eyes widened in shock as she finally really  _ looked _ at it. 

It was giant! 

It was so tall its head almost reached the ceiling, broad shouldered and covered in dark brown fur. The creature was vaguely reminiscent of a human, but the differences were pronounced enough to leave Lena feeling extremely uneasy. Its face was striking, with strong cheekbones and a square jaw, canines peeking out from behind its lips, noticeably longer and sharper than any human’s. 

She was having trouble processing what she was seeing. The only thing she could think of saying was, “You’re not a bear.” 

The creature laughed, a human’s laugh, but deeper, more resonant. “No, I’m not a bear.”

“You can talk.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Well, my vocal cords vibrate at specific frequencies, and that, coupled with air expelled out of my mouth creates sound waves that—”

“No. How did you  _ learn _ to talk? To speak English.”

“I was adopted by humans when I was young.”

“Right... Adopted by humans... What the hell are you?”

“I’m a bigfoot. That’s not an autonym, obviously. That’s just one of the things humans like to call us.”

“What do you call yourselves, then?”

“We don’t. We’re solitary. We don’t form communities or societies like humans do, or at least we don’t anymore. There’s not enough of us left.”

“Well, human society is not all it’s cracked up to be, trust me...” Lena stood from her hiding place. She was in shock, maybe, but not scared. If this thing wanted to hurt her it would have already. She edged closer to it, spotting her shotgun on the coffee table, within reach of her resting place on the couch.  “What were you doing in my shed?”

The creature pointed down at its ankle. “Razor wire.”

Lena gasped. The creature had a gash on its leg, fresh and still bleeding. It was partially obscured by fur, with razor wire embedded into it and curling around the back of the leg. 

“I thought maybe you had some pliers or something I could pull it out with.”

“Jesus, how did that happen?”

“Hunters. They’re getting more...  _ creative _ with their traps.”

“What? They’re trying to trap you?”

“Apparently I’m worth a lot of money. At least my body is, anyway.”

Lena groaned in disgust.

“Some of them are relatively harmless. They just want proof we exist, like a photo or a footprint in the dirt. But the others...” The creature shuddered. “They want to put me in a zoo, or kill me and have me stuffed, or worse.”

Lena felt a surge of anger rising up inside her. Humans were cruel, and she knew firsthand just how relentless they could be when trying to satisfy their greed.

She looked down at the creature’s wound again and the reality of it finally hit her. “I’m going to go get my first aid kit.”

Lena returned and was about to start setting everything up when someone banged on her front door. It startled her so badly she dropped the first aid kit on the floor. “Shit.” No one ever came to the door. That’s why she moved into the cabin in the first place.

“Hunters,” the creature whispered, wide-eyed. “Please,” it entreated, “don’t let them take me.”

Lena wasn’t one to cooperate on a normal day, especially not with anyone rude enough to come knocking on her cabin door at ten o’clock at night, but the pure fear in the creature’s eyes would have swayed her if she was having any thoughts of complying.

She picked her gun up off the coffee table and put a single finger to her lips. Peering out the window revealed two men who appeared unarmed but were almost certainly concealing hunting knives at the very least. 

Lena opened the door with her shotgun aimed. “This is private property, gentlemen. I have a no trespassing sign clearly posted. Did you not see it?”

The first man took off his hat, and shifted on his feet a little bit. “Yes, ma’am, we did see that.” He used an affected Southern drawl when he spoke. It made Lena’s skin crawl. “We don’t want to cause any trouble, but there’s a bear in the area, been attacking people. We’ve been tracking it.”

“A bear...”

“Yes, ma’am,” the first man said.

“A really big one,” his companion added.

“Is that so?”

“Yes. Very dangerous. You haven’t seen or heard anything strange outside your cabin lately, have you?”

“Only two grown men who can’t follow simple instructions... Although I guess that’s not so strange, now, is it?” 

“I suppose we deserve that.” The first man chuckled and cleared his throat. “Looks like something got into your shed there,” he said, gesturing towards it. “Mind if we look around?”

“I  _ do _ mind. I mind you disregarding my signs, I mind you standing here on my front porch wasting my time, and I especially mind you ignoring my imperative that you leave my property immediately.”

“Ma’am, this is a safety issue.”

“Other people’s safety is none of my concern. And mine is none of yours. Now I suggest you leave immediately because it is within my rights to shoot you and my patience is wearing thin.”

“Please—“

“Leave. Now.” Lena pumped the shotgun and aimed it directly at the first man’s head.

He took a step forward. “You’re making a mistake.”

“No, you are,” Lena said, firing a warning shot into the trees.

That was enough to cause the men to scatter, falling over themselves trying to flee the scene. Lena watched from the porch, not coming inside until they disappeared from view. She slammed the door shut and bolted it, leaning her shotgun in the corner. She was shaking. Did that really just happen? 

She groaned in frustration, letting her forehead knock against the door. “Fuck.”

“Are you ok?”

The creature. She’d almost forgotten. “No, I’m definitely not ok. I  _ shot _ at them.”  

“I know. It seems to be a pattern of yours.”

Lena raised an eyebrow. “Would you rather I hadn’t?”

“No, no. I’m glad. Thank you, by the way.”

Lena waved her off. “I’m just protecting my property.”

“Of course.” The creature said, shifting with a whimper.

Shit. The wound. It looked bad. She had needles and sutures in her first aid kit but she’d never used them on anyone besides herself before. And she’d definitely never provided first aid to a bigfoot. It felt so weird to say. How would she even explain this to anyone? 

She sighed. It didn’t even matter because she had no one to explain it to. She was alone. Just Lena.

And now this... thing. This injured, hulking, terrified creature in her goddamned living room. She half expected someone to remove a mask to reveal it was all prank, or to wake up, hungover, after a particularly vivid alcohol and cannabis induced hallucination.

Except there was the blood, and the size, and the smell. She’d never thought about what a bigfoot might smell like before, but the reality still upset her expectations. It didn’t smell like an animal, really. It smelled like dirt, like earth, like the air after a rainstorm. 

Lena was quite taken aback as she unpacked the necessary supplies and set them on a chair. She kneeled in front of the creature, hesitating to touch it yet. “I, um,” she cleared her throat as she put on a pair of gloves, “need to examine your leg. Is that ok?”

“Yes.” 

She placed timid fingertips into the creature’s fur, pulling it back to expose the wound. The razor wire was deeply embedded, but she could probably remove it with forceps without too much damage, as long as she was careful.

“The first thing I’m going to do is pull out the razor wire. That’s going to be the worst part. Then I’ll have to shave your leg so I can properly clean out the wound, and then I’ll stitch you back up. Does that sound ok?”

The creature frowned and sniffled a little bit, almost like it was going to cry, but it nodded nonetheless.

“Ok.” She grabbed a pair of forceps, searching for the best place to grip the razor wire so they wouldn’t slip. When she found it she looked up at the creature. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” it said through gritted teeth, shutting its eyes tight. 

It wasn’t until it let out a ragged, stuttering breath that Lena realized how scared it was. It was actually rather endearing, such a strong, hulking creature so upset about a minor injury, albeit a nasty one.

“Hey, it’s ok,” she said, and then she realized she hadn’t asked its name, or if it even had one. She put her hand on its arm, hoping to reassure it. “Do you have a name?”

The creature nodded. “Yeah. My human parents named me Kara.”

“Kara... I like that name. Does that mean you’re a girl?”

“Bigfoot genders aren’t quite the same as human, but yeah, basically.”

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Kara. I’m Lena, and everything’s going to be ok. I’m going to be as gentle as I can. Do you trust me?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Ok, here we go.” Lena took a deep breath, giving an experimental pull on the forceps, eliciting a deep, guttural cry from Kara. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” It was really lodged in there. No matter what she did, it was going to tear. She was just going to have to rip it out in one go. “Three, two...” She pulled on one, and the razor wire came out with an audible pop.

Kara roared in pain, so loud Lena felt it in her chest, and then apologized frantically. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

“No, it’s ok. I know that must have hurt badly.” Lena dropped the bloody razor wire on the ground. Kara’s leg was gushing blood. “Oh, shit. Shit. Ok, let me get a towel.”  

She grabbed a dish towel from the kitchen and ran to cover the wound with it, but Kara recoiled with a whimper. 

“I need to stop the bleeding.” Kara was crying. Lena reached out and took her hand, a human’s hand, but scaled up and dusted with soft brown fur. “Please?”

Kara nodded, using her free hand to wipe the tears from her face. Lena was surprised such a formidable creature could be so sensitive. She’d never considered it before, but now that she knew it stung her heart a little. What had Kara been through that led her to Lena’s shed late at night? It must have been traumatic. 

She was overcome by the urge to protect her strange new houseguest. 

“So you said you were adopted by humans. How old were you?” Lena asked, opting to try and distract her.

“I don’t know for sure. We don’t exactly celebrate birthdays. But I was probably what you’d consider a young adolescent.”

“Oh, wow. So before that you lived with other, um...”

“Other monsters? Yeah I did. Just one monster, actually. My mom.”

“You’re not a monster.”

“Look at me. I am the literal definition of a monster.”

Was she really though? “Here, hold that to stop the blood,” she instructed, letting Kara’s massive hand replace hers. 

Lena retrieved Volume IX of the Oxford English Dictionary from her bookshelf, flipping to the proper page as she walked back over. “Monster: ‘any imaginary creature that is large, ugly, and frightening.’ That doesn’t fit you at all, does it? You’re clearly not imaginary. You are large though. But ugly and frightening? Definitely not.” 

“You’re really not scared of me?”

“No. Why would I be?”

“Because I—” 

Lena held up one finger and Kara fell silent. She read, “Monster: ‘a person of repulsively unnatural character, or exhibiting such extreme cruelty or wickedness as to appear inhuman.’” Lena laughed bitterly. “Now  _ that’s _ the kind of monster I’m familiar with.”

“I’m sorry.”

Lena waved her off. “It’s fine. I’m used to it. I was raised by monsters, and as an adult became a monster by association. No matter how hard I tried I could never escape it. I spent so long trying to make up for everything my family had done, but I realized it would never be enough. I would always be a monster to them. I’d always be a Luthor.”

“Wait. You’re Lena  _ Luthor _ ?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably one of the most fun and liberating things I've written, and the response on tumblr has been awesome. I've loved all the headcanons and prompts and suggestions everyone has sent me and I'm looking forward to more.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all of your comments here and messages on tumblr. I love all of them.
> 
> tw for description of first aid for laceration (stitches)

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. Even _bigfoot_ knows who I am?” Lena sighed heavily. But of course. She was almost starting to like her bizarre visitor, too. “You’re free to run for the hills whenever you’d like, but I hope you’ll let me finish patching you up before you go.”

“No, no, it’s nothing like that. I’ve just read some of your research.”

“You have?” Lena set down the book, genuinely shocked.

“Yeah. My human parents were scientists. They homeschooled me, sort of. I remember reading your article about potential oncological applications for nanobot swarms in the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering. Oh! And your article about quantum entanglement in Nature Physics!”

“You read those?” Lena knelt in front of Kara’s leg, clippers in one hand. She began to carefully shave around Kara’s wound.

“Yeah. I thought you were amazing. I still do.”

“Really?” Lena could feel herself blushing. “God, that was years ago. Back when I could still get my research published. After Lex went to prison no reputable publication would touch me with a ten foot pole. It didn’t matter that I’d testified against him, or that he tried to have me killed repeatedly after I did so. Everyone _knew_ I was going to turn out just like him.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Well, it’s the reason I came out here. The world doesn’t want me, and I don’t want them either.” Lena put the clippers down, inspecting her handiwork. “I’m going to flush it with saline now. It might hurt a little.”

“Ok...” Kara said, frowning. “Humans aren’t all bad. Humans rescued me after hunters killed my mother. They raised me and taught me how to— ow that hurts!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m almost done.”

Kara grimaced, but continued talking. “My human parents taught me how to speak English and how to read. They taught me about science and technology and all these amazing things humans have achieved.”

“If you like humans so much why aren’t you with your parents right now? Why are you wandering around the forest in the middle of the night getting caught in hunting traps?”

“I—” Kara cleared her throat heavily. “They’re dead.”

“Oh.”

“Hunters found out my parents were protecting me and they killed them. They killed them and they’ve been chasing me ever since.”

“Oh, Kara, I’m so sorry.”

Kara shook her head, starting to cry. “It’s my fault they’re dead. They would have been better off if they’d never met me.”

“It’s _not_ your fault, Kara.” Lena took Kara’s hand, rubbing gently back and forth with her thumb. “I’m so sorry those hunters took them from you.”

“I miss them so much.”

“Can I give you a hug?”

Kara nodded. “Please.”

Lena stood and moved in close, wrapping her arms around as much of Kara’s body as she could and stroking her fur gently as she cried. “Just let it all out, Kara. I’m right here.”

Kara sobbed and sobbed, holding on to Lena with one hand lightly on her back. She was surely exercising a great deal of restraint to keep from crushing her, so Lena held on as tightly as she could.

“Thank you,” Kara said finally, once she’d stopped crying.

“For what?”

“For the hug. No one has hugged me in a really long time.”

“Me either.” Lena rested her head against Kara’s chest. She was so soft, so warm. Lena had to admit it felt good to be close to her. She released a heavy sigh, loosing something that she’d been holding inside for a very long time.

She felt unburdened somehow.

Lena curled her fingers into Kara’s fur. Maybe it was just the oxytocin talking, but she could definitely get used to this. “I’m not going to let them hurt you,” she said, suddenly feeling extremely possessive.

“But why? Why protect me? You don’t even know me.”

Lena let go of her and straightened out her shirt. “Like I said before, I’m just protecting the sanctity of my property.”

“I’m not your property.”

“No, of course not, but you’re _on_ my property, in my home. Your well-being is my responsibility as long as you’re here.”

“Lena, they won’t stop until they’ve caught me. They’ll kill you if you try to get in their way.”

“Ha! Do you know how many times my brother tried to kill me? He hired _multiple_ hitmen. He sabotaged my car. He tried to blow up my apartment building. Those rednecks don’t scare me.”

“Lena, it’s not just them. There are others, too. Worse ones.”

“I’m not afraid of them, either.”

“But Lena, you’re a human. You’re so fragile.”

“I’m Irish. We can’t be killed.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Talk about fragile,” Lena scoffed, “you’re the one with your leg sliced open... which I should definitely sew up right now so it doesn’t get infected.”

“Is it going to hurt?”

“It might hurt a little. But I’m going to put some numbing gel on first, and that should help.”

Kara let out a soft whimper. “Ok...”

Lena applied the gel and let it start to work. “So how long have you been on your own?”

“Around three years. I can’t be exactly sure. It’s hard to keep track of what day it is without access to a watch or a calendar or a computer.”

“That’s a long time to be by yourself. I’m sorry.”

“How long have you been alone?”

“Five years. I just got tired of being a villain, no matter what I did, no matter how many lives L-Corp tech saved. It didn’t matter. I was always just the sister of a madman, a woman from an evil family, a ticking time bomb.”

“I’m so sorry, Lena.”

“They got it all wrong, though. Lex wasn’t mad. He was just greedy and entitled and he didn’t care about anyone but himself. He used to care about me, until I disagreed with him.” Lena sighed in disgust. “But none of that matters anymore. He’s dead. They’re all dead. I’m the last one. So I decided to come out here where I can’t hurt anyone and no one can hurt me.”

“You don’t miss them?”

“No,” Lena said, clearing her throat. “Why would I miss the family that mistreated me?”

“What about your friends? Do you miss any of them?”

“Never had any.”

“None?”

“None.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? It’s not your fault.”

“I just... I know what it’s like to be lonely.”

“I’m not lonely. I’m alone, by choice. There’s a difference.”

“Are you sure?”

“I need to suture your leg now.”

“I, um... ok.” Kara closed her eyes.

“Hold still.” Lena was not lonely. She didn’t need anyone, and she certainly didn’t need an eight foot tall golden retriever making her feel weird about it. What she really needed, was to focus. She wiped the numbing gel off Kara’s leg and disinfected the area with betadine. “Ok,” she said, using forceps to pick up the hooked needle, a pair of needle holders in her other hand. “Are you ready?”

Kara nodded.

“You might feel a little sting, ok?”

“Ok...” Kara said, shakily.

Lena held her breath when the needle first pierced Kara’s skin, hoping the gel had done its job. She wasn’t sure if she could handle any more bigfoot tears. By some stroke of luck she was able to get a knot tied and a few stitches placed before Kara started to feel it.

“I’m almost done. You’re doing so good.”

Kara was in pain, Lena could tell, but she was holding perfectly still. Only two more and the final tie off and she’d be done. She snipped the ends of the thread short and tossed the tools on the chair, releasing a breath she felt like she’d been holding the entire time.

There were a couple of smaller lacerations she attended to, but all they needed was a little butterfly tape and they were all set. “I just need to put a bandage on it and we’ll be all done.” She placed a sterile gauze pad over the cuts and secured it with an entire roll of self-adhesive wrap. “There, good as new... ish.”

“Thank you. I’ll, um, be on my way, soon, I just need a few minutes, if that’s ok.”

“ _What_? What are you talking about? You can’t go back out there. You’re _hurt_ and people are literally hunting you.”

“You managed to scare them off.”

“I scared them off my land, for now, but they’re still lurking. And you are in no condition to be out there right now. It’s almost midnight.” As if to punctuate her sentiment, the night sky out the window lit up with a bolt of lightning followed closely by a crack of thunder. “And it’s going to storm.”

“The longer I’m here, the more danger you’re in. I can’t stay.” Kara made as if to stand, but as soon as she put weight on her leg she cried out in pain and fell right back down with a thud that shook the cabin walls.

Lena nodded, feeling just a little bit smug. “That’s what I thought. You need to stay off that leg for a few days or else you’ll pop the stitches and ruin my good work.”

“I don’t want them to hurt you because of me. I can’t be the cause of more death. I can’t.”

“No one is going to hurt me. I am perfectly capable of protecting myself.”

“You literally knocked yourself out firing that shotgun and you didn’t even hit me.”

“That was a fluke.” Lena crossed her arms. “But it doesn’t matter because you’re not leaving.”

“You can’t keep me here against my will.”

Lena was beginning to lose her patience. “Stop being so _stubborn_. You can’t even walk! If you leave right now you’re just going to hurt yourself even worse.”

She put her hand on Kara’s arm. It occurred to her that she should be more afraid her, or afraid of her at all. Kara was massive, tall and wide and thick, her lovely soft fur concealing hard muscle and certainly an enormous amount of strength.

Rather than elicit fear, it made warmth flare strangely in her belly. She needed Kara to stay, and need like that was something she thought she’d deadened long ago. “Please.”

Kara sighed, deep, rumbling, resigned. “Ok, but we have to be really careful. If they find out I’m here...”

“They won’t. And even if they do, I have security cameras, and guns, and a few other tricks up my sleeve.”

“Tricks?”

“I have an Engineering Doctorate and nothing but time on my hands.”

“Oh my.”

“I’ll show you some of them once your leg is better.”

“I’m kind of scared to find out what you’ve done.”

“Don’t be. I’ll protect you,” Lena said with a wink followed by a laugh that came out way too awkward. She cleared her throat. Did she just flirt with a bigfoot? Did she just become _flustered_ over a bigfoot? She was not nearly high enough to handle that line of thought, which reminded her...

“Do you want something for the pain?”

“Like what?”

“I have some Gorilla Glue.”

Kara furrowed her brow. “Is that a joke?”

“No, it’s a strain of cannabis that’s indicated for pain. If I were joking I would have called it ‘Bigfoot Budder’ or something like that. But that’s a terrible joke. I respect you more than that.”

“Oh. Ok. Thank you but, um... I’ve never used marijuana before.”

“Have you ever wanted to try?”

“I don’t know... My parents told me it’s dangerous.”

“It’s not. It’s actually very safe, but no pressure. I don’t want you to do anything you’re not comfortable with.” Lena grabbed a joint she’d rolled earlier and sat down on the couch. “You don’t mind if I smoke, do you?”

“No, that’s fine.”

Lena lit the joint and took a long hit, holding the smoke in her lungs for a moment then exhaling with a sigh. She let the high wash over her, her entire body relaxing as the THC did its job. She felt much better already.

She took another hit. “How’s your leg?” She asked, blowing out the smoke.

“It hurts, but if I don’t move it too much it’s not so bad.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve got some ibuprofen. I don’t know how much it’ll help, or what dose you’d even have to take. How much do you weigh?”

“I don’t know... A lot?”

Lena stood, joint hanging from her lips. After rifling around in her kitchen cabinets for a while she came back with a handful of pills and a glass of water. “Those are 200 milligrams each, so I’m giving you ten. That should be enough.”

The water glass was comically small in Kara’s hand, even more so when she drank from it. “Thank you,” she said, handing it back to Lena.

“Do you want some tea? I’ve got chamomile.”

“Oh, wow. I haven’t had tea in so long. I would love some.”

Lena put the teakettle on to boil and started to look for something to serve the tea in. Serving it in a pot seemed weird, but a pitcher might work... except she didn’t have one. Why would she have a pitcher when she had no guests to serve?

She finally landed on a large mixing bowl and was tossing a few tea bags in it when she heard Kara talking to someone in the other room.

“Oh, hello,” Kara said, voice pitched high and friendly. “We haven’t been introduced. I’m Kara, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all are the best and I love you. If you want to talk about bigfoot you know where to find me. <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to spicycheese, gveret, and semperpugnandi for participating in the writing sprint that helped me finally finish this chapter, and thanks to everyone else on discord for all your love and support. Y'all are the best and I love you all to pieces. 💗💗💗
> 
> also please check out the [beautiful bigfoot art spicycheese drew](https://drfitzmonster.tumblr.com/post/186123502915/read-chapter-3-of-my-sc-bigfootkarastonerlena)

Lena walked to the kitchen doorway to see her two cats cautiously approaching Kara’s outstretched hand. Lena hated to admit it, but she’d completely forgotten about them in all the chaos. They must have been hiding the whole time.

But they were out now, drawn to Kara like magnets. Lena watched in awe as they sniffed her hand and then jumped up on her, one after the other. They climbed all over her, sniffing her until their curiosity was sated, before curling up in her lap together. 

Lena chuckled, coming into the living room so she could scratch her cats behind their ears. “I see you’ve met the girls.”

Kara looked over at her, wearing a bright, beaming smile. “I love them! What are their names?”

“The black one is Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, and the orange tabby is Margaret Heafield Hamilton. Hopper and Hamilton for short.”

Kara gasped. “You named them after computer scientists! That’s so awesome!”

“Yes... I can’t believe you even know who they are.” Lena was once again shocked, although she probably shouldn’t have been.

“Why? Because I’m a bigfoot?”

“No, just because... Well, I didn’t think anyone cared about them.” 

“I care. Of course I care. I mean, Grace Hopper was just so cool! She basically invented COBOL. And Margaret Hamilton designed the software for the Apollo 11 mission. She worked for NASA!”

Lena started laughing, hard. It shook her whole body, and she had to steady herself against Kara to keep from falling. It hadn’t hit home until just that moment how absurd her current situation was. She was standing in her living room, about to serve tea to an injured, honest to god fucking cryptid who not only spoke English but could undoubtedly sweep the science category in Jeopardy.

“What’s so funny?” Kara asked, looking hurt.

“God, I’m sorry, but everything about this is just so ridiculous. I mean, you’re a... you. You’re here, in my living room. You’ve read my research. You know who Grace goddamn Hopper is. How are you real?” Lena asked, poking Kara in the arm, still half-convinced she was hallucinating.

“I don’t know. I just am. How are _you_ real?” Kara replied, poking her back, very gently, in the shoulder. 

Kara was looking at her so strangely, her head tilted to the side, brow slightly furrowed, like Lena was the incongruous one in her own damned cabin. A shiver ran through her, settling at the base of her spine and making her skin break out in goosebumps. 

She couldn’t remember the last time someone had looked at her, really looked, and Kara looked at her with such curiosity, like she was someone worth looking at. She was being seen in a way that she was not quite comfortable with. It was unnerving.  

So unnerving that when the teakettle whistled from the kitchen she about jumped out of her skin. “Jesus Christ!” she exclaimed, leaping back and flailing awkwardly to try to keep her balance. “The tea!”

She fled to the kitchen and pulled the kettle off the stove, pouring its entire contents over the tea bags in the mixing bowl she’d set up previous. She leaned back against the counter and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. The tea steeping gave her time to splash some water on her face and try to get her heartbeat back down to a reasonable rate.

“Do you take honey?” Lena called to Kara from the kitchen.

“Yes, please.”

Lena dumped about half a bottle of honey into the bowl, stirred, and fished out the tea bags with a serving spoon. She grabbed two pot holders and gingerly carried the mixing bowl full of very hot tea into the living room, but as soon as she saw Kara she groaned. “Your hands!”

“What? What about them?” Kara looked down at her palms.

“They’re huge!”

Kara frowned. “They’re perfectly in proportion to the rest of my body.”

“No, I just mean they’re too big for the potholders. I don’t want you to burn yourself.”

“Oh.”

“Let me get you a towel or something.” She set the bowl down, trying and failing not to slosh hot tea all over the stacks of books and papers littering her dining table. She ran to the hall closet to get a towel and when she came back Hopper was on the table sniffing at the tea, about to stick her paw in it. “Hopper no!” she yelled, brandishing the towel.

Lena managed to startle Hopper off the table but not before she knocked a stack of books and a bunch of papers onto the ground. “Dammit Hopper,” Lena picked up the papers and then made a haphazard stack of all the books that had been knocked on the floor. Naturally it fell over immediately and took another stack of books with it.

Lena groaned, frowning apologetically. “I’m sorry. Clearly I’m not set up for company.” She gingerly lifted the mixing bowl full of tea off the table with the towel to insulate and brought it to Kara. “Be careful. It’s hot,” she said as she handed it over.

Kara took a sip and hummed contentedly. It was a rumbling, low noise that Lena could feel in her chest. “Thank you.”

Lena pulled a chair up to Kara and sat with her own cup of tea. She wanted to say something but she was at a loss so she just cleared her throat awkwardly and sipped her tea.

They sat quietly for a while, and Lena hated to admit it, but she was beginning to feel almost comfortable around Kara, as unexpected as she was, as big as she was, as strange as she was. Lena watched her from behind her mug as she drank her tea, taking long but cautious sips from the bowl, taking great care not to spill any. 

The creature that had been living in the woods for the last three years might have had better table manners than Lena. She laughed, and quite naturally, sloshed tea all over herself.

“Are you ok over there?”

“Yeah, I’m great,” She answered with a groan. “I was just about to say that I think you have better manners than I do, but I’m sure you’ve figured that out for yourself already.”

“Not ill-mannered, just uncoordinated. You’re definitely different than I’d imagined you’d be. I remember reading about you in the New York Times. I used to daydream about what it would be like to work for you at L-Corp.”

“You did not.” Out of every ridiculous thing that had happened over the course of the evening, that was the least believable.

“I did so.” Kara sighed heavily. “I know it’s silly for someone like me to want something like that, but I just wanted to help people.”

“It’s not silly at all.” Lena felt compelled to stand and stroke Kara’s cheek but that seemed a bit too intimate so she settled instead for a hand running down her arm to rest in the crook of her elbow. “That’s all I wanted to do too.”

“You still can. You still own L-Corp, don’t you?”

Lena turned away from Kara. She needed at least two bong hits if they were going down this road. She chose the largest bong on her bong shelf. It was two feet tall, made of iridescent rainbow colored glass.

Kara just watched her in silence as she packed a bowl and sat down on the couch, bong cradled in her lap. She took two big, quick hits, making the room slightly hazy. She took one more it, talking through the exhale. “To answer your question. I do still own L-Corp. At this point it’s being run by proxy, per my instructions.”  

“You could take it back, couldn’t you?”

“If I wanted to... but I don’t.” Lena took a really big rip on the bong, probably a little too big because it sent her into a coughing fit. She had one hand on the bong and with the other reached out for the arm of the couch to keep herself upright.

Kara was at her side preternaturally quickly, especially for someone with a leg injury, and she hovered over her, looking concerned. “Are you ok? Do you need some water or something?” She took the bong from Lena and set it gingerly on the ground. “I’m going to get you some water.”

Lena took the glass Kara offered her and drank. “Thank you,” she said with a cough, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. “I wanted to make a difference. I really did, Kara. I tried so hard. But it didn’t matter. No one would work with me. My motives were always suspect. My name taints everything I touch. I had to make up a fake identity just to donate to charity because no one wants Luthor money. So don’t you see, Kara? It’s better for everyone this way. I stay away from them, they stay away from me. And eventually I’ll die, and the Luthor name will be gone forever. And the world will be a better place for it.”

“Lena no, that’s not true,” Kara pleaded, cupping not just Lena’s cheek, but her whole face, fingers on one side, palm resting under her chin, thumb wrapping round to her other cheek and stroking gently. 

It was a vulnerable position for Lena to be in, she realized as she sighed contentedly and let the full weight of her head rest in Kara’s hand. She was not one to let her guard down, under normal circumstances, but Kara was anything but normal, and her reactions to this creature who had crash landed into her life had so far surprised her at every turn.

Lena was a bit too stoned, and Kara’s hand was a bit too soft and warm, for her to be able to concentrate enough to fully analyze the implications of the feelings stirring within her, so she just focused on how good it felt to be touched.

“Lena, you’re amazing.”

“I’m not.” Someone calling Lena amazing was certainly in the running for most unnatural thing that had happened that evening. It just felt wrong. She was a curse, not a blessing, and it made her skin itch to think of anyone giving any amount of thought to her character, especially if they came up with _that_ answer.

She was not that complicated, really. A dyed-in-the-wool Luthor, despite all her attempts not to be. What did her good intentions matter, in the end, if people were still hurt? When children _died_ it didn’t matter that she was being framed, it still happened because of her. They died because she lived. She was still ultimately responsible.

The only demonstrable way that she differed from her family was her lack of determination. She’d given up, where the rest of her family had wreaked havoc and destruction until their last dying breath. Yet another way in which she’d failed them all. 

No, not failed them, outsmarted them. They were all dead, and she was free. She laughed bitterly to herself. Fat lot of good that did her. _Freedom_. Freedom to die alone and hope someone found her body before her cats had to eat her. 

That was a grim thought. So grim, in fact, that her mind wandered to what it might be like to live with someone like Kara. It was a ridiculous thought. But she’d had a ridiculous night, a ridiculous life, to be quite honest. 

“Lena?” 

She jerked back to attention, lifting her head from the cradle of Kara’s hand.

“What are you thinking about?”

“What? Nothing. It’s nothing.” 

“Are you sure you’re not thinking about how wrong I am, and what a terrible person you are?”

Shit. That was just unfair. “You think you know me, Kara, but you have no idea what I’m capable of.” Fuck, did she just threaten a bigfoot? 

Kara huffed out a breath. It was the most forceful thing she’d done that evening, and it startled Lena. “You have no idea what _I_ am capable of. I’m a wild animal, Lena. Aren’t you afraid of me, of what I could do to you?”

Lena scoffed. “No, of course I’m not afraid of you.” And she wasn’t afraid, not at all. Quite the contrary, desire flared in Lena’s stomach at the idea of a show of force. That kind of strength was intoxicating She’d always been a sucker for a certain type of woman, and Kara was like a funhouse mirror version of that, but hot. Probably time for her to switch strains if this was the kind of high it gave her. _Negative side effects: paranoia, anxiety, and attraction to cryptids._

Kara frowned and crossed her arms. “You know, I could kill you if I wanted to.”

“ _I_ could kill _you_ if I wanted to.”

“I think we both know that’s not true. So why aren’t you afraid of me?”

“Like I told you before, I know monsters. I was raised by them. And you may look different than a lot of humans, but you’re more human and less a monster than any of them ever were.”

Kara opened her mouth to speak, exposing her sharp canines from behind lips that looked like they might be very soft and nice to kiss. Lena shook the thought out of her head— or at least, she tried to. But the exact qualities of Kara’s lips still stuck on Lena’s mind, she just felt more lightheaded.

“I don’t know what to say to that,” Kara muttered, finally.

“Oh, well that’s easy. You say you agree with me and we move on.”

Kara frowned for a moment, then cleared her throat and said, “I agree with you.”

“Good. Now—”

“On one condition,” Kara interjected, holding on finger in the air.

“And what’s that?”

“You have to agree with me that you are also not a monster.”

Lena was taken aback. “I don’t know if I can accept your terms.”

“Well tough, because I’m not budging. And I am _very_ heavy, you’ll never be able to move me.”

Lena had to laugh at that. “Ok, ok. Let’s say we both begrudgingly agree that we’re neither of us monsters.”

“Ok fine.”

“Good,” Lena said with a smile. She went along with Kara, even though she knew inside that the creature was mistaken. She just didn’t know. She hadn’t had a chance to see who Lena was, not really. 

Give her time though. She’d be scared off like all the rest. She cleared her throat, trying to keep tears from forming in her eyes. The last thing she needed right now was an overly attentive, disturbingly attractive giant cooing at her.

“Lena, are you ok?”

Too late. 

“I’m fine,” she said, her voice cracking. She cleared her throat again and tried again, more authoritatively this time. “I’m fine, Kara.

Kara looked skeptical, but nodded anyway. She squinted at Lena, sure sign she was about to prod further. But instead of doing that, she asked, “What’s it like?”

“What’s what like?”

“Smoking marijuana.”

“Oh, that. Well... It’s kind of hard to describe, and different strains affect you in different ways. Some of them make you feel happy and energized and chatty. Everything is hilarious and you have a hundred ideas and you think about everything in new ways you’d never considered before. Some of them relax you. You feel calm and maybe sleepy, and definitely hungry. Sometimes voraciously hungry.”

“Really?”

“Yep. So hungry.”

“Well, that doesn’t seem so bad. But is it addicting? That’s what my parents told me.”

“I mean, you can get addicted to it just like you can get addicted to gambling or shopping, but it’s not like opioids or benzodiazepines that are physically addicting and can cause you to go through serious withdrawals if you stop taking them.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. It’s actually safer and has fewer side effects than a lot of prescription drugs.”

“Then why do people say it’s so bad?”

“Well... that’s a little bit complicated, and I am a little bit high for that story right now.”

“Oh, ok.” Kara deflated at Lena’s response.

“Maybe another time?”

That perked her right up. “Ok,” she said, nodding happily. “Lena?”

“Yes?”

“I want to try it.” 

“Are you sure? I don’t want to pressure you. I won’t think any less of you if you don’t.”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“You’re sure you’re sure?”

“Yes,” Kara said, nodding decisively. “I want to know what it feels like.”

Lena let a small smile creep onto her face. “Ok. I have the perfect strain for this occasion.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has been so much fun. Can't wait to see what y'all think! 
> 
> Next chapter: Lena gets bigfoot high!
> 
> Also I'm on twitter now ([@driftzmonster](https://twitter.com/drfitzmonster)). You can come yell at me there in addition to tumblr.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me: [@drfitzmonster](http://drfitzmonster.tumblr.com)


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